VI ANIMAL TRAINING AND INTELLIGENCE l8l 



serves his human masters, and his mind, accus- 

 tomed to the complexity of human methods, is 

 ripe to acquire new ideas. 



In fact, it cannot be too strongly urged that the 

 work of the sheep-herding collie, of the dogs used 

 in finding, attracting, or retrieving game, in dis- 

 covering truffles, in rescuing lost or drowning per- 

 sons, etc., exhibit far more real brain-power, 

 sagacity, and true education than all of the ac- 

 complishments of trick-dogs put together. These 

 latter are merely doing over and over a routine 

 of things of no real importance or object, and 

 which, as they are always precisely the same, 

 call for nothing more than memory and willing- 

 ness on the part of the performers ; whereas the 

 work of a shepherd's or drover's dog, of a setter 

 on the shooting-ground, and of many other dogs 

 in the service of mankind, requires a constant 

 exercise of judgment, discrimination, and adapta- 

 bility, and furnishes an incessant stimulus to their 

 minds. No automaton could serve their purpose ; 

 and could they not accommodate their conduct 

 intelligently to their master's movements and to 

 constantly varying circumstances, they would be 

 comparatively useless. Any sportsman or herder 

 will tell you that good sense is the most essential 

 quality in his four-footed assistant. As a matter 

 of fact, trick-dogs are usually chosen from breeds 

 that are good for nothing else. 



This introduces a general and, I believe, a just 



